Pakistanis choke as the South Africans take away the series...!!!!!!

South Africa captain Graeme Smith hailed his side's Test and one-day series victory over Pakistan as an "unbelievable achievement". South Africa won the deciding one-dayer by 14 runs after Pakistan lost their last six wickets for 20 runs. They took the Test series 1-0 and the one-dayers 3-2.

"I don't think any South African team has won two trophies on the subcontinent," Smith said. "Of course we can still improve but two series victories is fantastic." The series result leaves South Africa in second place in the ODI rankings, five points behind Australia.

When asked about Pakistan's sensational collapse, Smith said, "We took huge catches and the ball swung in the end and that helped us to take those last wickets."

Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik was at a loss to explain his side's defeat from a commanding position. "We were unable to maintain that form to the end," Malik said. "It's hard to explain. A win would have been good for the Indian tour." Pakistan kick off their tour of India with a warm-up one-dayer in Delhi on Friday.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) chief executive officer Gerald Majola also lauded the series wins. "To Graeme Smith, the team and management: CSA extends its heartiest congratulations on one of the great victories in SA cricket history," a statement from Majola said.

"To have won in this fashion against all the odds to win both the test and ODI series in Pakistan is an unprecedented achievement," it said. "The commitment and will-to-win from everybody was extraordinary and the nation here salutes you all. You have carried on where the South Africa Rugby team finished off in Paris (winning the World Cup)."

Afridi's stunning run.....Chak de phatte!!!!

His ability to bludgeon the ball out of the ground isn't in question, and neither is his ability to bowl a few overs of tight legspin and winkle out crucial wickets. Shahid Afridi has always been known for his occasional bursts of explosiveness, but in 2007 he has been immense with both bat and ball. The Faisalabad ODI against South Africa saw him at his irresistible best - his 3 for 37 and 18-ball 32 won him the Man-of-the-Match award - and continued the rich vein of form that has helped him score 277 runs at an average of almost 40, and take 16 wickets at 18.31 apiece from nine one-day internationals this year.

Afridi's career summary shows just how special 2007 has been. Compare it with his performances in the previous year and the contrast is even starker: in 2006 the runs dried up completely - 15 innings fetched a total of 115, with a highest of 23 and nine single-digit scores. His batting average was an embarrassing 7.66, while his 14 wickets came at a rate of more than 40.

This year, though, the story has been completely different. Not only has he found a way to score runs and take wickets, he has done so without compromising on either the strike-rate or the economy-rate - he has scored his runs at nearly 185 per 100 balls, and conceded just four per over with the ball.

Afridi's legspin has always been the more consistent part of his game, and the numbers show just how effective a bowling option he has been. In ODIs in which he has bowled six or more overs, he has gone at more than seven an over only eight times, while 18 times he has restricted the batsmen to a run-rate of less than three.

The New look Dhoni speaks........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ranchi: After curtains were drawn on the India-Australia series, which came into the limelight as much for the on and off the field verbal duals between the two sides as the cricket played, captain MS Dhoni said his team would continue to play aggressive cricket. "Every one knows about his role and responsibility. And if we can play aggressive cricket, we should play that way," the Ranchi player said in a press conference at his hometown.

When asked about S Sreesanth’s aggressive behaviour, which has been put under the scanner by several sections of the cricketing community, Dhoni said if the aggression is abiding by the code of conduct, there is nothing wrong in it. "In cricket we have guidelines and so long one plays within the frame work, it is okay," he said.

On the upcoming series against Pakistan amidst a hectic cricket schedule, the Indian captain said the break before the series was a welcome relief. "We have enough time before the tough series against Pakistan. We have played cricket for over five months, perhaps the busiest cricketing schedule in Indian cricket. It is important to relax, regenerate energy and charge our batteries before the important series ahead," he said.

Dhoni also said the ongoing Challenger Trophy is a great opportunity for youngsters to give eye catching performances and pave their way in the national side. "It is a great platform for all those players who want to get a chance," Dhoni said. Dhoni was also quick to defend the decision of the senior members of the team not to participate in the Challenger Trophy. "Players with 15 years of experience don’t need to prove themselves," he said.

The World Champions do it again.....!!!!!!!

The one-day series might have gone but India lived up to their world champions tag in the Twenty20, finishing with a thumping seven-wicket win in Mumbai. Australia have bossed around for most of the last month but India can take consolation from one stat: the last eight internationals between the two sides have been shared 4-4.

Ricky Ponting's blazing 76 launched a meaty Australian total but it was soon to be overshadowed by Gautam Gambhir's swash and buckle. The jury is still out on his Test and 50-over credentials but there's few who will argue with his ability to swing a Twenty20 match. With fifties against New Zealand, England, Pakistan and Australia he's been India's most valuable batsmen in the shortest format. Only Matthew Hayden has managed a similar number of fifties; nobody has managed to defy expectations so consistently.

Like he's done on each of those occasions, Gambhir set the agenda in an emphatic manner, partnering Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh in rollicking stands. Gambhir cut loose with a fearlessness that was missing in some of the 50-over games. The dance down the track was a regular feature but the chiselled square-cut was the sight of the evening.

Australia won the big moments and the small ones

If you were looking for a few instances that illustrated the difference between Australia and India in this series, billed as the "battle of champions" by some local television channels, try these couple of moments, both from the sixth match of the series in Nagpur.

The first involved free hits. Brad Haddin looked to swing Murali Kartik down the ground, but the top edge ended up in Sreesanth's hands just outside the circle at mid-off. Haddin, however, managed to scamper two. Later Sourav Ganguly, looking for a free swing over midwicket, top-edged Brett Lee behind the wicketkeeper and Adam Gilchrist collected the ball on the first bounce after making considerable ground. The Indians strolled a single. Palpably the difference here was in the intent.

In the same match, with Australia 109 for 3, Andrew Symonds top-edged Harbhajan Singh, and the ball swirled high over midwicket; Sreesanth, who was back on the ropes, was quick on his feet to make the ground, but his hands let him down and the ball slipped out of his grasp. Symonds, on two, went on to smash 107 off 88 balls. Later, Ganguly floated a tired lofted shot off Brad Hogg in the direction of long-off and Brad Hodge made the distance from the boundary and caught the ball with a slide. India never recovered from losing their set batsman. Give the Australians a chance, and they are most likely to make the most of it.

In his syndicated newspaper column on the morning of the final match, Gilchrist reflected on the closeness of the series despite the 4-1 scoreline. The difference, he wrote, was that Australia had won most of the "50-50 moments". In other words, whenever the match had been in the balance, Australia found the men and means to swing it their way.

All that separated the teams in Nagpur, possibly the best match of the series, was a couple of loose overs at the start of Australia's innings and a few tight ones in the latter half of the Indian innings. The margin was 18 runs - not insignificant in the context of one-day cricket - which boiled down to a few extra singles, some singles converted into twos, and a few runs saved in the field.

In the end, a 4-2 result looks far better than 5-1, which it could have easily been. But India will reflect and rue that it could very well have been 3-3. It will be difficult to argue, however, that Australia weren't decidedly the better side.

Kartik spins India to consolatory win..!!!!!

The stage was set for India's most loved cricketing son to bid adieu to his home crowd with the sort of innings that he often played to illuminate this venue for almost two decades. Instead, it was Murali Kartik, forever condemned to Indian cricket's fringes, who basked in the late-afternoon sunshine with a mesmeric spell of left-arm spin bowling, before taking part in the unlikeliest of rearguard actions to script a famous victory.

Australia's pace bowlers had bullied and toyed with India's top order, before a defiant 65-run partnership between Robin Uthappa and Harbhajan Singh gave India fleeting hope. However, it was a stunning 52-run stand for the ninth wicket between Kartik and Zaheer Khan that gave India a consolation win in a series otherwise dominated by the world champions.

By one of those strange quirks of fate, the Kartik-Zaheer partnership mirrored the epic one between Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble in Bangalore 11 years earlier. A crowd that had become despondent with Uthappa's exit roused itself to cheer every forward defensive prod, every nudge and even every swipe that just evaded the outside edge.

Dazzling, delicate; a reassuring presence

This is all to nitpick, of course, especially as Pakistan has less batting heroes than it should. Much more convenient to say that alongside Javed Miandad he is the greatest Pakistani batsman and undoubtedly, one of the best, most compelling of modern batsmen.

Captaincy brought out the human in Inzamam, despite his reluctance for the post. He was a caricature before: aloo, overweight, loves a nap, (and his food even more), comedy runner, loses runs when he loses pounds, hits fans. He probably didn't mind it, because nobody minds goodwill, sympathy and endearment the world over.

His dry, sharp wit, already known to teammates, emerged when he had to address press conferences. He was also honest: asked to assess an under-utilised bowler's performance once, he replied, "If he had performed I could've told you."

Fifteen years after his Test debut, Inzamam-ul-Haq signed off a glittering career on the final day of the second Test against South Africa in Lahore. His performance in the sign-off Test wasn't what he would have wanted it to be, and while that hardly diminishes from an exceptional career, it did mean he missed out on a couple of important landmarks.

The 17 runs in his 120th and final Test not only left Inzamam - who finished with a Test aggregate of 8830 - two runs short of equalling Javed Miandad as Pakistan's leading run-getter in Tests, but also brought his career batting average down to 49.60, marginally below the 50-mark, which is considered by many as a benchmark to distinguish between a good and a great batsman. In Inzamam's case, however, that definition clearly doesn't hold.

Shud hav shown lil bit of character !!!

If this was a final, as Ricky Ponting wanted his side to view the fifth one-dayer in Vadodara, it was reminiscent of the hopelessly one-sided conclusion to the World Cup in 1999. Mahendra Singh Dhoni let out a big smile at the toss, with the crowd cheering as if the result was a foregone conclusion, but trudged away in the knowledge that his side could no longer win the series. Even drawing level from here will take some getting.

The distinctly brick-red surface, one that demanded application, was to leave India's batsmen ashen faced. A combination of injudicious shot-selection, accurate new-ball bowling, efficient left-arm pace and outstanding wicketkeeping is often a recipe for a lop-sided contest. It resulted in India's lowest home total against Australia. In fact the game was up much earlier; spectators leaving the ground after 25 overs of the game realised as much.

India's bowlers keep series alive...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

India's bowlers fought back from a blistering opening by Matthew Hayden to snatch an eight-run victory and keep the seven-match series alive. Two of India's additions at Chandigarh, RP Singh and Murali Kartik, bowled superbly in the dying stages and Zaheer Khan held his nerve with a composed last over to secure the win.

Australia appeared to be cruising with ten overs remaining. The asking-rate was seven, they had six wickets in hand and a calm Symonds at the crease, but the out-of-form Brad Hodge struggled to rotate the strike and the required run-rate gradually expanded.

India were kept in the game largely by their spinners, Kartik and Harbhajan Singh, who built the pressure on Hodge by denying him singles which kept Symonds away from the strike. Irfan Pathan was also difficult to get away and Singh's return after a miserable start was superb.

Pressure is definitely on India !!!!!!!!!!!!!

India have left themselves a mountain to climb to win this series; down 0-2 and with four games to play, they will have to raise their game significantly, knowing Australia need only a half-chance to shut out the opposition in the fourth one-day international at the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh.

India have, however, responded well to such extreme pressure in the recent past. Trailing 3-1 in the NatWest Series in England, they were out for the count but managed to stretch the series till the final game at Lord's. At the World Twenty20, India were faced with three must-win games against Pakistan, England and South Africa and won all three to make the semi-finals - and the two knockout games as well.

The trend in the series has been for Australia to bat first and score 300, putting the Indian batsmen under immense pressure against an incisive new-ball attack. India's openers haven't coped well - 1, 11 and 10 in three innings - and the lack of partnerships at the top has crippled their run-chases.

Australian brilliance overshadows Yuvraj ton

It wasn't a one-sided drubbing like the Kochi game, but the Australians won all the key moments in the contest to sweep to a 47-run win in Hyderabad. The visitors now have a 2-0 lead after three games of the seven-match series. Following a coruscating 67-ball 89 by Andrew Symonds which powered them to 290, Australia survived an equally brilliant 121 by Yuvraj Singh and restricted the Indian run-chase to 243.

A determined yet classy 121 from 115 balls from stylish batsman Yuvraj Singh failed to get India past the post as the hosts fell short by 47 runs. Tendulkar was at his crafty best as he coupled his trademark straight drives with deft paddle strokes to frustrate the Australians, much to the delight of the 39000-strong crowd and Telugu superstar Venkatesh. Yuvraj Singh, who quietly worked his way when Tendulkar was on song, came into his own later on. India were dealt their fourth blow when Tendulkar moved away from his stumps only to be castled by spinner Brad Hogg after a gritty 43 from 71 balls, as a 95-run fourth wicket stand was brought to an end. India, however, were on par with Australia at this stage.

Definitely a game on our hands....!!!!

The day-time temperature in Hyderabad is around 32 degrees Celsius. It gets hotter inside a stadium filled with tens of thousands of noisy fans and when there's no love lost between the two teams, the contest could well and truly boil over. India and Australia play each other in the third of seven ODIs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Friday, and if the walk matches the ample talk from both teams, it could be a bumpy but exhilarating ride.

Australia are likely to be strengthened by the return of their captain Ricky Ponting, who missed the first two games because of a hamstring strain he sustained during the ICC World Twenty20. Australia's one worry has been their tendency to lose quick wickets at the start - 18 for 2 at Bangalore and 8 for 2 at Kochi - and Ponting's inclusion, most likely at the expense of Brad Hodge, will allay fears of the middle order having to bail them out again. Ponting hasn't played an ODI since the World Cup final and even though he didn't contribute much in Australia's Twenty20 campaign, his captaincy and presence at No. 3 and will undoubtedly bolster his team.

All-round display seals Australian win

Australia duly claimed the 1-0 lead that they had threatened during Saturday's washed-out series opener, stamping their authority over India with an 84-run victory that was achieved even in the absence of Ricky Ponting. Mahendra Singh Dhoni put the Australians in to bat in the hope of exploiting the wet conditions, but as the sun dried out the pitch and its surrounding area, India's hopes evaporated. First, Australia amassed a total of 306 for 6, then prised out ten wickets with clinical efficiency.